Symbolic capital at EDF, History of a social reputation preserved. How can the past still help organizations to project into the future?

Jean-Marc Lairaudat ()
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Jean-Marc Lairaudat: VALLOREM - Val de Loire Recherche en Management - UO - Université d'Orléans - UT - Université de Tours

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Abstract: The purpose of this communication is to highlight that the past determines the present and can still help the French historic energy company and its agents to plan and invent their future. The main issue of our communication is thus posed: to what extent can EDF's past and the symbolic capital of its agents allow it to preserve its reputation as a social enterprise, a fortiori vis-à-vis customers in situation of fuel poverty? The central hypothesis of our study is that the diversity of forms of internal solidarity specific to large public service organizations is found in the way agents adapt to transformations and fulfill their missions vis-à-vis customers in difficulty. The symbolic capital that has aggregated over time among agents practically contributes to preserving the social reputation of the company, despite its deinstitutionalization combined with other organizational phenomena.

Keywords: Innovation; sociology of organizations; France in 20th Century; welfare state; energy sector & business; Cultural History (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-09-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene and nep-his
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Published in 2nd World Congress on Business History - “Business History in a Changing World”, Sep 2021, Nagoya (on line), Japan

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